The Jerusalem Post covered the news that the Texas House of Representatives passed an anti-BDS bill, quoting B'nai B'rith International CEO Dan Mariaschin welcoming its passage and mentioning senior B'nai B'rith leader Charles Kaufman for testifying in its favor.

In a groundbreaking legislative act to blunt economic warfare against Israel, the Texas House of Representatives unanimously passed on Thursday an anti-boycott bill that bars the state from engaging in business with companies that are involved in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement targeting the Jewish state.

The bill was passed 131-0 and the author of the legislation was Representative Phil King. Pro-Israel organizations welcomed the vote.

Joel Schwitzer, the Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee in Dallas, told The Jerusalem Post, "AJC together with other community leaders worked diligently to ensure that every legislator received multiple contacts about the importance of passing this bill. We’re excited that this brings this legislation one step closer to being law of the land in Texas, strengthening its relationship with Israel, Texas’ 4th largest trading partner. We appreciate the leadership of Representative Phil King in authoring the bill. It is gratifying to see our elected officials sending such a clear and principled message that Texas will not do business with those who boycott our friend Israel."

Sen. Brandon Creighton, the author of the Senate anti-BDS bill, said Texas should not do business with companies that participate in the BDS movement.

“I want to thank the government of Texas for seeing the true, hateful intentions of BDS and banning such state-sponsored bias,” said The Israel Project CEO and President Josh Block. He added, “The people of the Lone Star State and Israel share an unbreakable bond based upon mutual values, and by passing this legislation – ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not fund discrimination – Texas has reaffirmed this important friendship."

Christians United for Israel (CUFI) said in a statement that ," CUFI has been working closely with lawmakers in support of the legislation since its conception. These efforts included bringing Texans from across the state to Austin to lobby lawmakers in support of the bill, testifying before both the Senate and House committees to which the legislation was assigned, and distributing an action alert earlier this week letting Texas State Representatives know that CUFI’s membership is behind the bill."

CUFI founder and Chairman Pastor John Hagee said “Texas is CUFI’s home state and among the most pro-Israel states in the union. The relationship between the Jewish State and the Lone Star State is built upon shared values, including a rock-solid commitment to standing up for liberty – especially when it is threatened by radical Islamic extremism."

“I am very proud that Texas will join with those states that have told the BDS movement that America is unimpressed by efforts to demonize Israel. And I am equally proud of the hard work CUFI members, leaders and staff have done in order to see this and similar legislation advance in state capitols around the country,” Hagee added.

The Texas State Senate passed its version of anti-BDS bill in March. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign a merged version of the anti-BDS bills in early May.

“In addition to the unwavering support of Gov. Abbott, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, this legislation would not have been possible without the steadfast leadership of the bills’ authors, State Sen. Brandon Creighton and State Rep. Phil King,” said CUFI Action Fund Chairwoman Sandy Hagee Parker.

CUFI has 3.3 million members in the United States. Daniel S. Mariaschin, the CEO of B'nai B'rith International, told the Post, "We are grateful by the overwhelming support for this measure in the Texas Legislature. It remains vitally important for government figures and legislative bodies to join the growing number of people who recognize the abject injustice of the BDS movement."

Charles Kaufman, who chairs B’nai B’rith’s International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy and is based in Austin, delivered testimony in the Austin legislature in support of the anti-BDS bill. Mariaschin told the Post last month that the Dallas-based bank Comerica should close an account that it maintains with the pro-BDS organization the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).The IADL ”excuses the actions of terrorist organizations and denies Israel’s right to defend itself," Mariaschin said.

B'nai B'rith International CEO and Executive Vice President Dan Mariaschin was quoted in TheJerusalem Post article on a bill in the Texas legislature that would prevent the state from doing business with companies that support the BDS movement.

“Comerica should close the account,” said Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, an organization that testified on Wednesday in Texas in support of the anti-BDS bill. The IADL 'excuses the actions of terrorist organizations and denies Israel’s right to defend itself.'"

Check out the article, that includes testimony from the B'nai B'rith International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy Chair Charles Kaufman given at the Texas legislature in support of the bill.

Texas has been a hotbed of anti-BDS activity in recent days, with the passage of a bill in the Senate on Wednesday that will bar state contracts and investment in companies that boycott Israel, and mounting criticism by Jewish organizations of a local bank’s BDS activity.

Chuck Lindell from the American-Statesman paper reported that the Texas Senate passed the bill opposing BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) by a 25-4 vote and that it was sent to the Texas House of Representatives for a vote. “No senators spoke in opposition to [bill] SB 29 before the vote,” the paper reported, adding that the bill’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, said Texas should not do business with companies that participate in the BDS movement.

One such company, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), maintains an account with the Dallas-based Comerica bank.

“Comerica should close the account,” said Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, an organization that testified on Wednesday in Texas in support of the anti-BDS bill. The IADL ”excuses the actions of terrorist organizations and denies Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Like other financial institutions, Comerica does not have to provide everyone with an account or a loan, he said. “Banks have recognized that they should not truck or have business with these types [BDS] of accounts.”

The IADL supports Iran’s nuclear program and has a chapter in communist North Korea.

Jan Fermon, the secretary-general of IADL and a Belgium-based lawyer, wrote the The Jerusalem Post by email in early March that, “Regarding BDS, IADL supports this movement.”

He added, “IADL engaged in solidarity with the Palestinian people in a very early stage of its existence because it considers the violations of international law and human rights law... by the Israeli authorities as a major obstacle to a just and lasting peace in the region.”

Charles Kaufman, who chairs B’nai B’rith’s International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy, delivered testimony in the Austin legislature in support of the anti-BDS bill. Kaufman, who lives in Texas, said, “In another time, in another place in history, people who wanted to rid the earth of the Jewish people boycotted their businesses. Filled with fear, these good citizens, stripped of their possessions, separated from their families, would subsequently fill boxcars... and you the know rest.

“Today is different, the Jewish people have a state, Israel, their ancestral homeland, a home shared with Christians and Muslims and many other faiths,” he said. “And yet, there are people who still want to rid the earth of Israel and demonize Jews in a shocking reply of antisemitism. The talk of a boycott is back. It is back in the form of an appalling spreading disease called BDS – against Texas’s fourth largest trading partner.

“The BDS movement would like you to believe that this effort will pressure Israel to make existential concessions to enemies who seek its destruction. This is simply the latest in a litany of false narratives that is threatening a democracy and a free world,” said Kaufman.

“Do Texans share the values of individual freedom, tolerance, mutual respect and pluralism with Israel? Absolutely, yes. Do we share a spirit of discovery, enterprise and security with the State of Israel? Yes. Do we need an anti-BDS law in Texas? In the face of a threatening movement? Sadly, yes.”

Joel Schwitzer, the American Jewish Committee’s regional director in Dallas, told the Post: “AJC recognizes that Comerica Bank, and other financial institutions, are clearly free to do business with whomever they choose. AJC urges banks to consider carefully what it means to extend an account to a discriminatory movement like BDS, which seeks to de-legitimize a single country – and that often intersects with antisemitism.”

Wayne Mielke, a spokesman for Comerica, responded to the Post by email, saying, “We don’t discuss customer relationships, and want you to know (again) that we have a robust compliance program at the bank.”

Mielke’s response is “not good enough. It is a legalistic answer,” said Mariaschin. The question for Comerica is: “Do you want to do business with an organization [IADL] that engages in this type of activity?” Mielke declined follow-up Post queries about whether the bank had launched an investigation into the IADL account and about Comerica’s views on BDS.

The 2016 B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportaģe ceremony was held on July 7, 2016, and was covered by The Times of Israel and Haaretz.

​Winners of the award, which recognizes excellence in Diaspora reportage in Israel print, broadcast and digital media, were Amanda Borschel-Dan, the Times of Israel’s Jewish World editor and Allison Kaplan Sommer, staff writer at Haaretz. Both journalists submitted an impressive array of articles on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations published during 2015.

Ambassador Ron Demer posted his entire speech on TimesofIsrael.com, speaking about the vital link between Israel and the United States.

Beyond security and technology, my confidence in the future of the US-Israel alliance also comes from my appreciation that our alliance is rooted in things that run much deeper. It is rooted in our most cherished values and in a shared sense of destiny. The idea that all are created equal in the image of God, that no one is above the law, that compassion for the most vulnerable is a sacred obligation — ideas which have been a moral compass for generations of Americans — were ideas first championed thousands of years ago by the prophets of the Jewish people and which today are fused into the national identity of the Jewish state.

Having lived both in the far-flung corners of the Diaspora and in the heart of the Jewish world, Israel, Australian social workers Dr. Wolf Matsdorf and wife Hilda were supremely aware of the media’s influence on strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry.

Wolf, an editor of the B’nai B’rith World Center Journal “Leadership Briefing,” worked as well in journalism in Israel and Australia. As such, to honor their legacy, the Matsdorf family inaugurated in 1992 the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.The couple, passionate activists in many Jewish organizations including the Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism, the Society for the Rescue of European Jewry, and B’nai Brith International, recognized that quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations was essential for the resilience of both centers of the Jewish peoplehood....

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer will deliver the keynote address.

﻿Borschel-Dan recounted how she only discovered she was Jewish when she was nine years old. She said she decided to immigrate to Israel “at 24, with only a backpack and my violin,” after realizing that as someone “whose center of life is not the synagogue,” her future children’s children would very likely not grow up to be Jews if she remained in the United States.

She said it was always important to her that there is dialogue between Jews from Israel and the Diaspora, as well as between religious and secular Jews from all denominations.

Borschel-Dan said that she views the Jewish people as “a big family.”

“A family needs to be familiar with all of its members. But more importantly, a family must recognize and accept all of its members as family,” said Borschel-Dan.

AFTER RECEIVING the Israel Prize and the prestigious Sokolov Prize among several other important awards, veteran journalist Yaakov Ahimeir last Thursday received a life achievement award at the annual B’nai B’rith World Center awards for journalism, established quarter of a century ago by the late Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf, and expanded since then to include an annual life achievement award in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky and a special citation established by the B’nai B’rith World Center to honor performing artists who have fostered closer relations between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.

The latter was awarded to the totally charming Idan Raichel, who, though he had to rush off to a performance, nonetheless decided not to cheat the audience at the awards ceremony at the Konrad Adenauer Center in Jerusalem and performed briefly before exiting. In accepting the citation, he spoke with a degree of modesty tinged with pride, saying that in several countries he and his group are regarded as the sound track of Israel, just as Édith Piaf is regarded as the sound track of France, and Miriam Makeba the sound track of Africa.

​Both the Matsdorf prizewinners – Allison Kaplan Sommer of Haaretz and Amanda Borschel-Dan of The Times of Israel – thanked their respective editors for giving them a free hand to write about the subjects that really interest them. Each, at different times, began their journalistic careers at The Jerusalem Post. Broadcast journalist Ahimeir, the winner of the Life Achievement award, did not begin his half-century-long career at the Post but, rather, spent most of it at the nearby studios of Israel Radio and Israel Television (Channel 1).

Guest speaker Ron Dermer, ambassador to the United States, is also a former Post columnist, and addressed The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York this past May.

Dermer, whose mother was born in prestate Israel and whose father was born in the United States, presented himself as a walking example of the US-Israel alliance.

Ahimeir hinted that with the advent of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, which is due to replace the Israel Broadcasting Authority on October 1, he was on the verge of ending his career in tandem with the demise of the IBA. However, there have been media reports of rumors that both Ahimeir and Golan will be incorporated into the IBC, this despite the fact that Golan has used every opportunity to be critical of the decision to close down the IBA, and he hasn’t had anything complimentary to say about the IBC.

Ahimeir, in accepting his award, admitted that the IBA was in need of a drastic overhaul, but to close it down, he said, “was the most erroneous decision of the government.”

He wondered aloud about the conscience of those who had voted “to destroy one of the most important institutions in the country.”

Dermer, who described himself as “a card-carrying member of B’nai B’rith,” said that most Jewish organizations owe a debt of gratitude to B’nai B’rith for being a pioneer in many areas. He also applauded the choice of Raichel for a citation, calling him “one of Israel’s finest ambassadors in the world.”

Contrary to what BDS reports would have people believe, according to Dermer “Israel is less isolated today than at any time in our history.” In relation to the alliance between Israel and America, Dermer said: “It is without question the most important relationship that Israel has in the world.”

In demographic terms, Dermer credited Israel with now having surpassed the US, and thus becoming “the largest Jewish community in the world,” adding that “New York still has more Jews than Jerusalem.

Despite differences in opinion between Israel and the US over a nuclear Iran, Dermer is confidant that the alliance will grow stronger and that Israel, as an ally, will become more critical in protecting America’s interests. The most dangerous security challenges to the US, he said, will come from the Middle East.

A new Knesset lobby known as the B’nai Anusim, was launched on Tuesday to assist the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity to explore their Jewish roots.

B'nai B'rith World Center Director Alan Schneider was quoted in a Jerusalem Post article commending the lobby and its mission to reconnect people with their Jewish roots. Read an excerpt from the article, below:

The Sephardic Memorial Center of Grenada exhibits the blending of Spanish and Jewish cultures.

In a letter read to the lobby’s inaugural gathering, President Reuven Rivlin stated that while in “Spain precious communities were forced leave their faith, their life and the values they grew up and raised their families” five hundred years ago, “Spanish Jews are still with us, and we must not forget them.”

According to lobby founders MK Robert Ilatov and Ashley Perry, increasing numbers of the descendants of Jews around the world have become interested in exploring their heritage and reconnecting with the Jewish people.

“For many of us in this room who are the descendants of those persecuted and forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal, we know that it would have been impossible for our ancestors to have even dreamed of this moment,” said Perry, a former advisor to erstwhile Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and the founder of the Reconnectar NGO.

[...]

According to Spanish Ambassador Fernando Carderera, more than the requests of more than 4,300 Sephardic Jews for citizenship have been approved since the recent passage of a bill providing the descendants of the expellees with the opportunity to reconnect with Spain.

[...]​B’nai B’rith’s Alan Schneider told the Post that he believes that the new initiative sends a message to interested parties that Israel and the Jewish people reciprocate their desires and that “its going to be easier for them now to investigate their Jewish roots, to find out about Jewish tradition, learn about their traditions and how they relate to Judaism and eventually to decide if they want to take the greater leap of rejoining in a formal way with the Jewish people.”

“I think it also sends a message to the Jews in Israel and Jews around the world that there potentially is a much deeper margin of potential supporters, of family actually, there who feel close toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel and eventually can be called upon to be our supporters even if they choose to stay in their current status,” he said.​

Citing a litany of nations across the globe guilty of egregious human rights offenses that have not been subjected to international boycotts, renowned jurist Alan Dershowitz lambasted the BDS movement at a B’nai B’rith International ceremony honoring Israeli journalists Monday night.

“Whenever I debate BDS, I always throw out the following challenge to my students all over the world,” Dershowitz told International Jerusalem Post editor Liat Collins in an on-stage interview at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

“Name a single country in the history of the world faced with internal and external threats comparable to those faced by Israel that has ever had a better record in human rights; a better record with compliance of the rule of law; a better record of concern for civilians?

“I have been asking that question now for 20 years probably to a million people around the world, and I’ve never gotten a single person even to stand up and name a country, because you can’t do it.”

Moreover, Dershowitz argued that the issue is not about BDS in itself, but rather “the singularity of directing that sanction against the most democratic state in the Middle East – one of the most democratic states in the world.”

“Is Israel perfect? Of course not,” he continued. “Were I an Israeli citizen, I’d feel perfectly entitled to be critical of Israel’s polices in many regards, as I am very critical of America’s policies. But to be critical of a country’s policies is not to demand the unique kind of moral capital punishment of BDS.”

Noting that the sophistication of the movement has advanced considerably, Dershowitz emphasized that it is incumbent upon pro-Israel advocates to do more to “prove and demonstrate that those on the side of BDS are not only the wrong side of morality, but of the peace process.”

“The BDS movement is antagonistic to peace,” he told Collins. “It makes it harder for the Palestinians to come to the bargaining table.”

Prior to Dershowitz’s statements, Sam Sokol, The Jerusalem Post’s Jewish World correspondent, was recognized for journalistic excellence at the organization’s annual World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage ceremony.

The B'nai B'rith World Center Diaspora Journalism awards are among the most prestigious honors in the Israeli media. In late April, B'nai B'rith International announced this year's recipients of the various awards, and has received dozens of media mentions in the weeks since.

Read English and Hebrew highlights from the publications and news outlets below, including the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Channel 10, Arutz Sheva, social media and more:

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reporting on contemporary Diaspora-Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-Diaspora relations in Israeli print and electronic media.

The award is widely recognized as a prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry and was established to help shore up the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. It does this by highlighting the important contributions the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry — so essential for the resilience of both — by encouraging quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations.

Jerusalem Post correspondent Sam Sokol has won the B'nai B'rith World Center's annual award for excellence in Diaspora Reportage, the organization announced Sunday morning.

Sokol, who covers the Jewish World beat, won the award in he print categor for his ongoing series on Jewish communities displaced by the Ukrainian civil war. Just before Passover he returned ffrom yet another trip to eastern Ukraine during which he met with Jews in the city of Mariupol, which is widely considered to be one of the separatists' next targets should they renew their offensive.

"This is a great honor and I am incredibly thankful," said Sokol. "I hope that winning this award helps raise awareness of the issues facing Ukrainian Jewry during this incredibly difficult time."

Eyal’s hourlong program “Hate,” broadcast on Oct. 7, 2014, dealt with rising anti-Semitism in Europe and was filmed on location in Germany, England and Greece. The broadcast also aired earlier in the year as a four-part miniseries on Channel 10.The Voice of Israel’s “Searching for Relatives Bureau” program was inaugurated in 1945 to help Holocaust survivors track down missing relatives. The program was broadcast continuously until 1969, and was relaunched in 2000 in a new format that includes interviews and investigative reporting.

The winners of the "B'nai B'rith World Center Award for Journalist Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage in Memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf" were announced today in Jerusalem. The awards went to Sam Sokol, the Jewish World correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and Nadav Eyal, the chief international correspondent for Channel 10.The jury is also giving a "Lifetime Achievement Award in Memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky" to Kol Israel, for its program "Searching for Relatives Bureau."

In 1992, Bnai Brith established their World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportaģe. The award is widely acknowledged in the media industry as the most prestigious prize in its field in Israel.
[...]The members of the award jury are: Chairman Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “ARIEL”– The Israel Review of Arts and Letters from 1981 to 2003; Yehudith Auerbach, professor in the School of Communication at Bar Ilan University; Eytan Bentsur, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general; Shalom Kital, former director general of News Company and Channel 2; Gabriela Shalev, professor and chair of the Higher Academic Council at Ono Academic College, as well as a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations; and Bambi Sheleg, founder and editor-in-chief of Eretz Acheret, and a 2011 award winner.

Pessach was an outstanding rabbinic and communal figure who served for 63 years as rabbi, including later in life as chief rabbi of Greece. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, he shepherded the Volos Jewish community of approximately 1,000 people through tumultuous times.

The organizers behind the Jewish Rescuers Citation award ceremony view believe it is especially important to expose Jewish youth to the phenomena of Jewish rescue during the Holocaust as a model for Jewish solidarity and courage.

“We believe that the topic of Jewish rescue during the Holocaust for the past 70 years hasn’t received the attention it rightly deserves,” said B’nai B’rith World Director Alan Schneider to Tazpit. “There were thousands of Jewish rescuers who saved countless Jewish lives, who many people don’t know about.”

At the ceremony on Thursday, members of the underground Zionist youth movement in Hungary during WWII will also be recognized for their rescue efforts as will Yaacov (Jacko) Razon, a Greek-Jewish boxer who helped other Jews survive at Nazi concentration camps.

Since the creation of the Jewish Rescuers Citation in 2011, around 100 awards have been presented to Jewish rescuers who operated in Germany, France, Hungary, and Holland.

Holocaust Remembrance Day - known as Yom HaShoah in Hebrew - began Wednesday evening, at the start of the Hebrew calendar day, with a powerful ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.Among the dozens of commemorative events taking place today was a unique ceremony at the Martyr's Forest on the outskirts of the capital, held jointly by the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF).The event - held now for the 13th consecutive year - is the only one dedicated exclusively to commemorating the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the years of torment in Europe. Some 200 Border Patrol Cadets – who will provide an honor guard - and 200 high school students are participating in the ceremony together with Jewish rescuers and survivors.

During the war, Rabbi Pessach also established a unit of partisans that rescued allied soldiers and fought the Germans. The Greek King Paul and the commander of the Allied forces in the Mediterranean decorated Rabbi Pessach for his actions. “My grandfather was respected by Jews and Greeks alike and he always gave help and advice to all before and after the war,” said Eskanazi. “He was one of them, my grandfather, and the Jews were accepted by the Greek community.”Rabbi Pessach’s good friend bishop Alexopoulos was recognized posthumously by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Gentiles in 1977 following the request of the Jewish community of Volos.

But the most significant outcome of Roet’s activism is an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony awarding the “Jewish Rescuers Citation,” held by B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel (KKL-JNF) at a plaza among the six million trees planted in the Martyrs’ Forest near Jerusalem.While the ceremony is in its thirteenth year, the citation has been awarded only since 2011. Making up for lost time perhaps, over 100 Jewish rescuers who operated in France, Germany, Holland and Hungary have since received the honor.“When we leave out the Jews, we’re leaving out an important part of the picture,” director of B’nai B’rith World Center Alan Schneider told The Times of Israel just after Wednesday’s Yad Vashem state ceremony.

Schneider applauded Yad Vashem’s increased efforts in the area of Jewish rescue, including a recent Hebrew-language book and several symposiums and seminars.“But there’s a lot more to be done. This is something that we feel has not gotten the attention over the years, whereas there has been a lot of attention on how Jews were murdered, rounded up, the war, restitution efforts,” said Schneider.Stories of Jewish rescue of Jews convey important principles to today’s youth, said Schneider.“Jews should take these examples of Jewish solidarity and use them as educational tools,” he said.

The memory of an elderly rabbi who led partisans against the Nazis in occupied Greece during the Second World War will be honored during a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Martyr’s Forest on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday.

The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund will co-sponsor the event, which for the past 12 years has been dedicated to honoring the memory of Jews who rescued their coreligionists during the Holocaust.

In the Jerusalem Hills, there stands the single largest memorial to the Holocaust in the world, known as Martyrs’ Forest. The forest is comprised of six million trees planted in memory of the six million Jews who perished.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day in the capital, a unique ceremony takes place to commemorate the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

Fiercely loyal to his country and to his community, Rabbi Pessach initiated and orchestrated the rescue of his community during the German occupation with the assistance of the Bishop of Volos Joachim Alexopoulos and other non-Jews - efforts that led to the survival of 74% of the Volos Jews.

This was an extraordinary achievement in a country where 85% of the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.In addition to these efforts, Rabbi Pessach also led a partisan unit against the German Nazis.On Rosh Hashana 5703, 30 September 1943, Rabbi Pessach was summoned to the headquarters of the German military governor Kurt Rikert, who demanded that he submit within 24 hours a list of all the Jews in the city and their assets, purportedly for the innocent purpose of determining the amount of food rations needed to sustain them.

Haaretz:

On the Jewish New Year in 1943, Rabbi Moshe Pessah, the chief rabbi of the central Greek city of Volos, was summoned to the German military governor of the city, Kurt Rikert.

Rikert ordered the rabbi to provide a list of all the city’s Jews and their property within 24 hours, claiming that the list was needed in order to arrange food supplies to the residents during the occupation.

Greek Coverage:

The European Union started Passover on a sour note, announcing that the much-anticipated upcoming conference on combating rising anti-Semitism in Europe will not share equal billing with Islamophobia.

While B'nai B'rith International has been an outspoken global advocate of diversity and worked to combat prejudice and discrimination of all kinds, the concern is that adding other issues to the discussion of anti-Semitism allows government officials to avoid real action.

B'nai B'rith International Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Fusfield spoke on behalf of the organization to the Jerusalem Post, highlights of which can be found below:

Jewish organizations worldwide expressed shock and dismay over the weekend following the announcement that the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency is planning on holding a conference that implies an equivalence between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

[...]

It will focus on the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment and violence across the continent and the “growing evidence in many European countries, especially in the past two years, of very high rates of anti-Muslim incidents, including acts of verbal and physical violence,” according to the organizers.

Jewish community leaders in Europe and elsewhere told The Jerusalem Post that despite being largely supportive of the FRA’s work, they believed it inappropriate for it to juxtapose hate directed against Muslims with anti-Semitism as if both were one and the same.

“The challenge of combating anti-Semitism would be better served by a stand-alone colloquium fully focused on the problem,” said Eric Fusfield, the legislative affairs director of the B’nai B’rith International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy.

“Opponents of anti-Semitism have tried for years to promote greater understanding of anti-Semitism as a distinct phenomenon with unique dimensions sometimes requiring unique solutions,” he said.

“It is true that some strategies for combating anti-Semitism may apply to other forms of intolerance as well, but the fact is that, for too long, the tendency of governments and international organizations to conflate anti-Semitism with other social illnesses has served as a means of avoiding the problem rather than addressing it head on, even as the crisis facing Jewish communities has intensified in Europe and elsewhere,” he added.

B'nai B'rith International expressed concerns over Comedy Central's selection of comedian Trevor Noah to replace the departing Jon Stewart as host of the very popular political satire program, The Daily Show.

Over the last several years, Noah has tweeted multiple anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and misogynistic messages, and has based his stand-up material on cheap racial stereotypes.

In a statement released on Tuesday (picked up by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JNS.org and other outlets), the organization acknowledged the difference between the humor of stand-up comedy and the platform of The Daily Show.

B'nai B'rith expressed optimism that Noah would be responsible and sensitive in his new role. Read highlights from the news coverage below:

Two Jewish groups expressed their concerns over past social media posts by Trevor Noah, the choice to succeed Jon Stewart as host of “The Daily Show.”

Since his appointment was announced Monday by Comedy Central, Noah has come under fire for past tweets about Jews and Israel, including one from 2010 that read “South Africans know how to recycle like Israel knows how to be peaceful.”“B’nai B’rith is concerned about the long history of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and misogynistic tweets by the new choice to host the popular comedy program, The Daily Show,” the organization said in a statement issued Tuesday. “We recognize that the platform The Daily Show provides its host is different from the stand-up comedy circuit, and we are hopeful that Noah will use this new and larger role responsibly on complex, sensitive issues.“Entertainment cannot justify promoting hate and misinformation — and no group, including Israelis and Jews, should be considered fair game for bigotry.”Noah, 31, who has over 2 million Twitter followers, was a surprise selection for “The Daily Show” post, as is he relatively unknown in the United States. He is a star in South Africa, where he has filmed four standup specials.

South African comedian Trevor Noah, the newly announced successor to Jon Stewart as host of the satirical television program"The Daily Show," has come under the microscope for past social media posts that disparaged Jews, Israel, and women.

Stewart, who is Jewish, came under fire in pro-Israel circles last summer for what critics considered to be pro-Hamas bias in his segments on the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, Jewish organizations issued statements that addressed the controversy surrounding Noah's tweets."Trevor Noah, tapped to replace retiring Daily Show host Jon Stewart, has repeatedly tweeted comments that are deeply offensive and highly stereotypical, and his anti-Israel comments even border on incitement. Why does he tweet about Jews so much?" B’nai B’rith International said in a statement."Though Jon Stewart has always been quick to note that The Daily Show is meant to provide entertainment more than actual news, political comedy in our culture is often a substitute for news," B’nai B’rith added. "Studies have shown that a large number of Americans, particularly young Americans, get their news from such programs. The line between satire and hate can be very fine. As a result, the role of the host on this popular program carries significant responsibility."

As detailed in the article, J Street leadership encouraged conference attendees to ask whether Jewish fund-raising reached West Bank settlements, and separately to replace maps of Israel in Jewish institutions with maps that clearly delineate the West Bank.

Read excerpts of the response from B'nai B'rith International, below:

J Street came under fire Sunday after opening its fifth annual conference in Washington over the weekend with a call for Jewish organizations to distinguish between Israel and the West Bank, including in fundraising.

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Several American Jewish organizations also came out strongly against J Street’s call, including B’nai B’rith International, which said: “We totally disagree. In essence this is a call for a boycott, which is destructive for the prospect for peace.”